There are known cylindrical drums, particularly drums adapted to contain liquids in fermentation, or for juice extraction, which drums are horizontally supported on their respective side surfaces by two axles centrally extending therefrom, the axles being rotatably supported. One axle serves as a drive shaft and includes a relatively large drive wheel or rotor, which is coupled to a gear train to reduce the number of revolutions compared to the number of revolutions of a drive motor, to which the drive wheel is coupled. Gear trains which have been used include gear wheels, such as spur gears, bevelled gears, or worm gears, as well as drive means using tension, such as bands, belts or various types of chains. Hydraulic drive means are also known for this purpose.
Drums of this type, capable of containing up to 60 tons, do, however, present drive problems, which are primarily due to the fact that these drums are centrally driven. This in turn requires gear trains of relatively large dimensions, which are costly and relatively complicated, in order to obtain the required reduction in the number of revolutions of the drive motor. Furthermore, the larger the diameter of the drum, the smaller must be the number of revolutions of the drum. Gear trains suitable for driving such drums then become so expensive, that it is no longer economically worthwhile to further enlarge the drum. In practice therefore, a plurality of drums are used for this purpose.